Mobile apps used in China

As the use of smartphones in China increases, the downloading of mobile apps by Chinese people is also surging. According to China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), about 60% of China's population are Internet users, and among them 97% are smartphone users (Bernard, 2018; Chang, 2019). As mentioned previously, the Chinese market comprises approximately 727 million mobile users, a figure that is three times as big as that of the US market having approximately 270 million mobile users(Bernard, 2018).

In fact, China boosts the largest mobile commerce volume in the world (Bernard, 2018; “China was the largest app market”, 2018), as well as the most extensive Internet connectivity via mobile phones (Biggs, Chande, Matthews, Mercier, Wang & Zou, 2017). On average, Chinese consumers invest more than 30 minutes a day in Taobao app (the largest e-commerce market in China), which is about three times longer than Americans typically spend on Amazon (Biggs et al., 2017).

In Korea and most countries in Asia and Europe, consumers download and use apps for free from Apple’s App Store, Google’s Android Market (Google Play) and Microsoft's Windows Marketplace etc., (Palomba, Linares-Vásquez, Bavota, Oliveto, Penta, Poshyvanyk & De Lucia, 2017), which are provided by global companies rather than being locally-developed. In China, however, Chinese consumers mainly use local app stores, because, currently, access to Apple’s App Store or Google Play is prohibited nationally or permitted most limitedly. Unlike Korea and other countries where apps from a few global firms (e.g., Apple’s app store, Google’s google play) dominate the app market, there are so many local app stores in China, whose market share is fragmented across the whole app market in China (Ao, 2018; “App Annie 2017 retrospective”, 2018; Chang, 2019; “China was the largest app market”,

2018; “Mobile app spend soars with China a top market”, 2019).

By the end of April 2018, there were about 4.14 million apps available in China, with game apps accounting for about a quarter of them (about 1.45 million), and the number of life service apps and e-commerce apps also increased steadily and was about 498,000 and 392,000, respectively (“How many mobile apps”, 2018). Moreover, there were 366,000 audio and video player apps and 13,000 online payment apps (“How many mobile apps”, 2018).

In 2017, China’s mobile commerce conducted through smartphones was estimated at about $1 trillion, with most coming from more than 713 million e-commerce app users (Ao, 2018; Bernard, 2018).

According to i research, a market research firm situated in China (Jung, 2017), the top 20 mobile apps used by Chinese people in 2017 were communication apps (e.g., Wechat, Kyukyu), video apps (e.g., Aichi and Yuki), utility apps (e.g., Baidu search, Qumyu browser, Baidu Chinese typing machine, free vaccine, Shanda Wifi, Yousa browser, Kyukyu Secure), an e-commerce app (e.g., Taobao), and music and audio service apps (e.g., Kugo, Kyukyu Music). In particular, since world-renowned social network services (e.g., Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter) are banned or restricted in China, Wechat and QQ, which are SNS channels developed by Chinese companies, rank as # 1 and # 2 in the Chinese app space (Jung, 2017). The Wechat app, a messaging app with integrated shopping features and which is similar to Korean Kakao talk and Kakao story, has about 800 million monthly users.

The QQ app (a popular messaging app with a greater focus on interactive games and blogging) has about 550 million users per month, and the Sina weibo app (China’s biggest social media platform, twitter-like microblogs) is used by about 400 million people per month (Biggs et al., 2017).

The third most popular Chinese app is Iqiyi video app, which provides a

video streaming service that replaces YouTube, and dominates China's video platform (Jung, 2017). Together with PPS, Iqiyi video app enjots 20% of the video streaming market (Biggs et al., 2017). In China, video streaming apps (Youku, Tudou 20%, Tencent video 15%, LeTV, Sohu, Bilibili, 25%) are gaining more active users (Biggs et al., 2017).

Taobao, China's largest e-commerce platform and which integrates entertainment functions and social networking functions, is the sixth most widely used application in China (Jung, 2017). Taking into account that Tmal is also China’s largest third-party platform for brands and retailers, the two e-commerce apps share a market share of 75-80% between them. Further, Jingdong is a direct sales e-commerce platform (JD managers works merchandising and pricing) similar to Amazon, and its market share is estimated to be 10-15% (Biggs et al., 2017).

The Alipay app, which is usually used for both online and offline payments, is ranked 7^th in terms of market share (Jung, 2017). Alipay is also China’s biggest online third-party payment system with more than 450 million active users, compared with ApplePay’s 12 million users, and it has a market share of 50% (Biggs et al., 2017), followed by Wechat pay (20%) and Baidu Wallet (5%).The Baidu search engine ranks ninth in the number of app users (Jung, 2017), accounting for 75% of the search app market (Biggs et al., 2017).

In addition, apps that are mainly used by Chinese consumers, are game apps, information apps such as news and airline reservation apps (e.g., Tencent news, Variflight.com), car-sharing service apps similar to the Uber app in America (e.g., Di Di), video platform apps similar to South African TV (e.g., MeiPai), location-based service apps(e.g., Amap), brand promotion or business apps(e.g., HLA) and so on.

Although it is not easy to establish accurate and official statistical data on

the number of users or market share, Chinese consumers also frequently use fashion apps as part of their daily life. In fact, fashion items are the most popular products purchased by Chinese consumers through mobile apps. In addition, about half of Chinese respondents reported that they received information regarding latest fashion trends and styling tips through mobile apps, while more than 82% of Chinese millennials have reported using apparel brand apps to look for new apparel items, buy clothes, or check for new promotions or offers (Asia Distribution & retail, 2018). Given these facts, it is quite necessary and meaningful to investigate Chinese consumer behavior in using mobile app for fashion shopping.